All posts filed under: Close-Up

5.29.19 Hello, my creative pretties. It’s that time again for Creative Close-Up. Writers, there are times when we need to keep in touch with our craft. In other words, sharpening our skills. It doesn’t matter if your a biography, fiction, or non-fiction writer, we all need to hone our craft. I found an article from The Writer website titled Setting the tone: How to Handle Voice In Your Fiction by Jack Smith. Give it a good read, you just might learn something! Setting the tone: How to handle voice in your fiction Authors share tips for finding a voice that will suit your work and resonate with readers. BY JACK SMITH PUBLISHED MAY 16, 2019UPDATED MAY 17, 2019 In real life, we often speak of tone of voice: “What’s with that tone of voice?” Perhaps because it sounded impertinent or disrespectful; we picked up on an attitude we didn’t appreciate. At any rate, we know that the way words are said matters just as much – if not more – as the words themselves. In fiction, as in real life, …

August 29 / 17 Hey! It’s time for some Creative Close-Up. For those who are trying to get their foot in the door of the art industry, Arts Business Institute has a few tips to share with you…. credit source: Arts Business Institute How Direct Mail Marketing Can Boost Your Art Business What You Can Learn from Your Competition Art and the Corporate Market Staying Focused? Or Chasing Money? Sell Your Handmade Work to High-End Clientele How to Improve Your Art Website About Page I hope these articles from ABI are helpful. Enjoy your day, be blessed. Image source: Wallup.net

July 29 / 17 Hey everybody…it’s time for a Creative Close-Up. I found a recent article about music streaming, courtesy of Digital Music News. This has been updated to show you how much the artists are making. Read it and see for yourself. Digital Music News What Streaming Music Services Pay (Updated for 2017) Daniel Adrian Sanchez July 24, 2017 So, how much can you expect to get from Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms? Music streaming services have helped to spark a revival in the music industry. This year alone, major labels have reported record-breaking revenue. But how much are artists actually earning? We’ve been compiling data on this for a few years. But getting a comprehensive, overarching look is pretty difficult. Now, Information is Beautiful has released a new infograph showing how much major streaming services actually pay. It reflects their best efforts to amass per-stream data into one diagram. + Calculate Your Earnings from Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Amazon, Google Play & More Two years ago, the team at Information is Beautiful did the same analysis. They …

October 26, 2015 I love music, doesn’t matter if it’s rock, jazz, pop, metal or maybe a little country, I just love music. Over the years, music streaming has become the norm. Who can remember Napster? Now we have Apple, Rhapsody, Pandora, Spotify, and now there is Tidal. When iTunes came on the scene, I came aboard with it. Now I’m trying Apple Music, so far so good, but it needs more bug fixing. I also have an account with Spotify. It was premium, but now it’s a free account. Crazy yes, but that’s how I work. Both Apple Music and Spotify are pretty good. At first I couldn’t tell which quality of sound was perfect. The winner goes to Apple, because it’s sound is near perfection. Tidal is the new kid on the block of music streaming. They claim that they’re the first music service with High Fidelity sound quality, High Definition music videos. I have no doubt that it’s true. As we all know Jay-Z and 17 other artists including Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, to name …

September 28, 2015 Niche: A position or activity that particularly suits somebody’s talents and personality or that somebody can make his or her own. Whenever you create something, doesn’t matter if its painting, photography, or music, you want to put your own stamp on it…in other words you want to put your very own creative niche into the work. It’s all about finding your creative niche. You know your personality is like, for some artists, they put that aspect into their work. What they put on canvas, paper….not only is it a part of their personality, but also what they’ve experience in the past few years. They can’t go on painting or drawing the same thing. Each part of their work has a time period. Someone or something from their past, their present has been a source of creativity. The same goes for singers and musicians. Again, the past and present has a way of coming together when you hear a piece of music, a song. All about that creative niche. Some of them have …

April 27, 2015 Morning all. May will be here this Friday and I’m getting it all together, but first, I want to share six articles with you that may be worth your while…. Use QR Codes to Share Your Art Niche Markets in the New Economy Increase Your Illustration Income With Tostadora Avoid These 7 Mistakes When Photographing Art Obama Administration’s Tax Reforms Target Art Collectors The Best Way to Collect Contemporary Art: Patiently & Passionately I wanted to shake Art Close-Up a bit, just something different. Lots of stuff for tomorrow, so please continue to visit! Enjoy your Tuesday and always be blessed! featured image unknown

March 30, 2015 A certain exhibition has critics in an uproar. That should be the name of this post. As some of you already know or don’t know, is that Icelandic pop icon Bjork has an exhibition that is now held at MoMA and will be there till early June of this year. I was surprised by this because, I mean I know who Bjork is. I’m familiar with her music, it just took me off guard, because I didn’t think she would even consider doing that type of thing. Too bad I can’t just pop up at MoMA to see the exhibit, but that’s alright. What’s really got my attention is the press the exhibition is getting. So far it’s generating pretty bad reviews. Art critics have pounced and they are holding no punches. Some reviews have been blunt to downright biting…. “Scant, cramped overview….jammed into a tacky little two-story pavilion….Bjork should have said no-not because her work isn’t museum-worthy, but because, as proved here, the Modern is not up to the task.” Roberta …

February 23, 2015 Good Afternoon. Last week of February and have things lined up for the week. Let’s look at this month’s Art Close-Up. I really wanted readers to know how I feel about the subject of racism. Let’s face it. It’s the 21st century and racism still exists. It’s a sad and very frustrating problem. I was watching a little bit of The Book of Negros on BET last week. This program and several films about slavery are hard to watch. Mainly because it tells the hard, cold truth of how slavery was for our ancestors. Taken away from their homes, crossing the Atlantic in the most despicable conditions no human can simply imagine. Even so, we still need to know how hard they fought not only for freedom, but also that future generations know what sacrifices they made for us. Our ancestors were free, but it was still an uphill battle, especially in the American South. Look at the Harlem Renaissance. The prevailing theme was racial consciousness. African-American writers, artists, musicians, poets, even …